Sue Luketina said an increase in funding was accompanied by an increase in duplication by agencies.

ABC News: Erin Parke

A senior suicide prevention worker has described agencies bogged down in meetings, as they try to coordinate the growing number of non-government organisations being funded to run programs in the Kimberley.

"We've got a number of different agencies doing the same thing," Sue Luketina said in response to questions put to her at the Coroners Court in Fitzroy Crossing.

"From what I've seen over the years it's just getting more and more complex, which creates a need for more meetings and steering groups, doing that rather than focusing on the job at hand.

"Collaboration is getting harder and harder, but there are considerable efforts to make that happen."

She told the court she had worked in the region for almost 30 years, and in her current position focused on service coordination, prevention programs, training local Indigenous suicide workers, and raising public awareness.

She described a much-needed increase in state and federal investment, including the appointment of the region's first permanent child and adolescent psychiatrist.

But Ms Luketina said the increase in funding was being accompanied by an increase in duplication, citing separate programs being run by the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service, Wesley Mission, Boab Health, Anglicare, the Aarnja Aboriginal Corporation, as well as a crisis response team that would occasionally fly in from the city.

She said a monthly meeting held to discuss mental health issues in the region involved 25 different organisations.

"It must be really difficult for people who need the services to know what exactly is there," Ms Luketina said.

"And in the non-government sector, there is some resistance to sharing [information] because of competition over money."

'Government favour large NGOs'

The concern about large, national NGOs moving into the Kimberley to capture lucrative government contracts was raised earlier in the week by the CEO of the Fitzroy-Crossing based Marninwarntikura Women's Resource Centre.

Questioned about the role of local Aboriginal organisations delivering services, Emily Carter said they had superior cultural understand and continuity of staffing.

But Ms Carter said governments favoured contracting large, outside organisations that had limited understanding of the region and its needed.

"It's easier for government to work with the large NGOs ... the Government is about streamlining and rationalisation and that doesn't always work for us," Ms Carter said.

"They've got people to write funding submissions and we just don't have the capacity to do that.

"Ideally we would like to be given some preference.

"The big NGOs need to understand that we're here and we are not going to go away, and to show some respect for that."

The inquest is being held over three months, with the Fitzroy Crossing hearings wrapping up this week.

Later this month, the court will travel to Halls Creek and Kununurra, before concluding in Perth in September.